Body of Syrian girl, 4, found washed up on Turkish beach

The body of a four-year-old Syrian girl has been found washed up in Turkey’s western Izmir province weeks after the body of Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi’s body was found on a beach in Bodrum sparking international protests in support of refugees.

According to local Turkish authorities, the yet to be identified four-year-old girl washed up off Altinkoy region in Izmir province’s Cesme district this morning.

Preliminary reports said that a boat filled with refugees was trying to reach a Greek island when it sank. Turkish coastal officials were eventually able to save 14 Syrians, including eight children, in a rescue operation.

The survivors were sent to the District Gendarme Command Centre.

When three-year-old Alan Kurdi’s body washed up on a beach near Bodrum in Turkey on 2 September, it moved the international community to reassess its attitude to the plight of thousands of refugees heading for Europe from conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East.

Kurdi was one of 12 Syrian refugees, including eight children, who had drowned that day after their boat sank en route to the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Since that incident, thousands of people have been promised asylum in western Europe.

In the first five months of 2015, over 42,000 people arrived by sea to Greece, most of them refugees, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

However, the UNHCR also says more than 300,000 people have risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea so far this year, and around 2,500 refugees and asylum seekers have died or gone missing trying to reach Europe.